Bobette
by LesMisLoony
Summary: COMPLETE! So... What if Fantine had had twins? And now they've switched places and Parnasse is hitting on Cosette instead of her sister! Nooo!
1. Beginning Where We Left Off

A/N - Yeah, I had this story up earlier, but no one read it. And that made me sad, cos I worked hard on it. This was my first fic ever, and I love it. Please review!!!!!!!!  
  
Disclaimer - I do not own Les Mis. I do, however, own Bobette.  
  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
  
Cosette Fauchelevant Pontmercy smiled wanly at Marius as he climbed after her into the fiacre. They had only been married a short time, yet already their lives had been struck by great tragedy. The man she had called Papa for as long as she could remember had died only hours ago after finally admitting to her the truth of their pasts. Cosette was an illegitimate child, her mother had died years ago and her "father", - really just a good friend of her mother's - was the escaped convict Jean Valjean. Even Marius's arm around her shoulders did not fill the hollow in her heart.  
  
The fiacre bumped monotonously through the streets of Paris. The city which had always smiled on her in her youth seemed gray and cold. Cosette had never noticed the large amount of urchins and beggars before. Paris had once seemed so friendly. A small sound from Marius brought her back to the present.  
  
There were passing the Rue de la Chanvrerie. The street showed no sign of the terrible tumult that had occurred there only months earlier - had it been that long? There had been an uprising among the Parisians; they fought a battle that they were sure to lose from the beginning. Marius and all of his friends had fought, but Marius was the only one to survive. But that was not entirely true, for her papa - Jean Valjean - had also joined the insurrection. He had saved Marius's life. Cosette remembered that she was not the only one mourning.  
  
When they finally reached the house Cosette realized that she wanted to be alone for a while, and told Marius so. He smiled vaguely.  
  
"I suppose so. You should take a walk by the river. I always did like that spot."  
  
Cosette took his advice and left the house.  
  
Only ten minutes later Marius heard the door open. He recognized Cosette's step on the stair and opened the door of the dining room just as she had reached for the knob. She smiled prettily at him.  
  
"Cosette, you came back quite sooner than I had expected."  
  
"I think it may . ah . rain later," she said quickly.  
  
Marius's eyes flicked over her shoulder at the azure sky. There was no sign of any storm.  
  
He looked hard at Cosette, wondering if she felt well. She continued to smile blankly at him. And then he noticed something slightly different about her - something he could not put to words.  
  
He moved aside and watched her approach the table. To his surprise she sat in his seat. He frowned, speculating as to what the problem might be. She gave him the blank smile, and suddenly it occurred to him what seemed so strange. When she smiled at him, her eyes held no emotion, almost as if she did not care for him at all.  
  
But she must be grieving much more than he was, for it was her father who had died. Ultime Fauchelevant - or Jean Valjean - had saved Marius's life once, and he had not properly thanked him before the kind old man had died. Marius sighed and seated himself in Cosette's usual seat.  
  
Suddenly Cosette asked if he would be a dear and fetch her something from the cellar. Surely she knew how he disliked that damp little room. It had no windows, no light if the door was closed, and only one way out: up the dilapidated old staircase and out the one door.  
  
But Cosette was firm. There were several large bags of potatoes in the cellar and she greatly wanted one for supper. Sighing, Marius began to descend the old stairs. Just as he reached the dirt floor of the cellar the door was slammed shut. Marius heard the sound of a key turning in the lock.  
  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
  
Yeah, okay, that was short. But . . . oh well. Review? *makes puppy dog face* 


	2. Oh, That's Explains A Lot

A/N - Yay reviewers! The lack of reviewers was what inspired me to re-post and edit the story. So, to actually /have/ reviewers this time is a good thing.  
  
La Pamplemousse - The coolest story ever? Wow. *is honored* Now I feel special. In a good way.  
  
Wierd Kitty - Actually, they're not too different. I think the chapter spacing might be, though.  
  
Elyse3 - Good point. You will notice that "Parody" no longer appears as a . . . um . . . darn I can't remember the word. Anyway, it doesn't claim to be a parody anymore.  
  
Eponine Enjolras - Die Lizzie die! Here's your explanation.  
  
Disclaimer - I don't own the LM characters you recognize, but I do own the band of gypsies (or gipsies, as Hugo would say) and Bobette. Cos she's all from here *points to head*  
  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
  
The girl who had just locked the door smiled to herself, thinking what a fine job she had done. She looked down at the outfit she was wearing - a long black dress with an extremely large amount of lace at the top. She was not used to dressing like a rich girl. Fingering the large curls in her hair, she thought that her sister's life was not so bad after all. If only she had been the girl that the Thénardiers had not turned out of the house.  
  
She remembered, even as young as she had been at the time, how the woman had complained to the man that two grungy little mouths to feed were just too many. And there was the fact that she could not tell the "brats" apart. She finally wrote their mother that one had died of fever and kicked one out. Of course, the child kicked out had been Bobette.  
  
Bobette had been found by a band of gypsies who had raised her from that early age and treated her like something of a freak. They had seen her identical sister and believed that this was the work of the devil. They raised her on the belief that one of the girls had no right to live, often insinuating that that sister was Cosette.  
  
Of course, Bobette had no desire to kill her sister. She only wanted Cosette to have as little as she did. She remembered that one day the gypsies had traveled to Paris and performed in the streets that afternoon. When they had danced all day and not earned a sou they returned to their camp. Bobette had risen that night to the sound of many people trying unsuccessfully to move about the camp silently. Suddenly a man's head poked into her tent. She could not clearly see his face, but she heard him say something in a strange and twisted French she had never heard before.  
  
He grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her out of the tent. Other men were standing about, their faces slightly illuminated in the flickering light of their torches. Bobette's captor shouted something, and, to her horror, the men began to light the tents with their torches. Bobette saw many gruesome things that night that she had no desire to remember.  
  
The man dragged her away from the scene after a bit, followed by several other shadowy figures. They stopped in a dark corner. Bobette's captor said something else to her in that unintelligible language. Seeing that she did not understand, he pushed her disgustedly towards a younger man. This man laughed and spoke in plain French. "He wanted to know why a girl like you was living with gypsies."  
  
Relieved at having found someone she understood, Bobette explained the whole story. At the mention of Thénardier the young man's face brightened. After clarifying that she had indeed lived with the Thénardiers, he suddenly announced that this must be the Lark.  
  
The young man introduced himself as Montparnasse. His companions were Gueulemer, Babet, Claquesous, and Brujon. Abruptly, Montparnasse grabbed her arm again and set off walking. In a few moments they were outside a sewer grate. Brujon said something in that ridiculous language and the gate swung open, revealing an older man wearing a very large beard. He conversed with the others for a while, and finally looked at Bobette. He stepped even closer, and suddenly he seemed to have realized who she was. Laughing, he told the others a long tale in that odd language. He stared at Bobette for a while, then spoke in recognizable French.  
  
"I saw the Lark about a month before the June insurrection. She lives with an old man - the same man who came to the tavern years ago and took her from us for nothing. She was extremely rich and happy, and even worse, my former neighbor, an airy fool called Marius, had been seen by some of my men watching her at Luxembourg. I hear that they were married not so long ago. The Lark has everything she ever could have wanted." Bobette simmered with jealousy.  
  
She had joined the robbers from that day forward. They taught her their language, argot, taught her the tricks of the trade, and introduced her to other bandits. She was commonly called "the Hawk." It seemed to be a joke with Thénardier, who called her sister "the Lark." Even as Bobette became a known villain, she felt in her heart a burning desire for revenge on her sister.  
  
She had recently attempted to employ Thénardier's daughter, Azelma, to find Cosette. The younger girl had laughed in her face and said that she knew where the Lark was already. Bobette had watched the house for a long time, waiting for the right moment to strike. The opportunity had come when Cosette had wandered out of the house alone that afternoon. Bobette had knocked her cold, traded clothes with her, bound and gagged her, pushed her into a corner somewhere, and used her own money to visit a barber who might fix her hair like her sister's. She had not realized that only ten minutes had passed when she returned to the house. And here she stood in Cosette's clothes, in Cosette's house, having just locked Cosette's husband in the cellar.  
  
The Baron Marius Pontmercy's pounding on the cellar door awoke her from her satisfied reverie. She had come this far, but what was she to do now? 


	3. A Twist

A/N – Okay, I'm updating. As some of you know, my computer had Windows reloaded and all my programs that weren't saved to disks were wiped out. Sadly, Bobette was one of these. Luckily, I had already printed Bobette because I love it that much. So, I'm using my pre-pre-pre-editing version. Whee. *laughs* and my computer tried to change 'Bobette' to 'Bebop.'  
  
Eponine Enjolras- Yay! Here comes more to read. I think I read your next chapter... yeah... 'Twas very funny.  
  
La Pamplemousse- *gasp* I have written not only a sock-rocker but also... a shoe-rocker? *is proud* Thank you muchly.  
  
Sweet775- Heh. I'm a very creative person. I also wrote this fic right after reading the book, so I think it's pretty darn accurate... except I can't imagine Fantine naming identical twins Bobette and Cosette. I also wasn't too clear on French-style names when I wrote the fic... obviously.  
  
Elyse3- Yay! Two people call me creative! I'm afraid I'm sort of a Marius abuser. Not that I don't love him... I love all the Mizzies. It's just so much fun to abuse Marius and Cosette... the thick ones.  
  
Disclaimer – I don't own Les Mis. I do own Bobette. Um... *can think of nothing witty to say*  
  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
  
Cosette awoke to the sound of movement. Her head hurt terribly, and she had no idea where she was. Something touched her arm, and she realized that a handsome young man was cutting the ropes around her wrists and ankles. Yet Cosette had no idea why they were bound in the first place.  
  
The man grinned at her. "Why are you tied in the corner here? I thought you kept out of sight of them in this house."  
  
He seemed to think that he knew her somehow. Her blank stare must have told him plenty.  
  
"Come on, Hawk. It's Parnasse! Your chum from the underworld." He laughed under his breath at his own joke.  
  
The name meant nothing to her – something he could plainly see. Looking concerned, he began to inspect the welt on the back of her head. Saying something she did not catch, the man pulled Cosette to her feet and set off, dragging her after him.  
  
A moment later they stood outside the grating off a sewer. Pulling it open, Parnasse pushed Cosette in ahead of him. Her dress tore on the broken lock. When the baroness glanced down she realized that she was wearing rags instead of her familiar black gown. The new tear blended in with many others.  
  
Cosette turned to say something to Parnasse, but he was gone. In the blackness of the sewer she heard his voice mixed with many others, the majority of which she could not understand.  
  
A hand grabbed her shoulder and Cosette jumped. A bearded old man stood at her side, his face slightly illuminated by the light coming through the grate.  
  
"Well, Hawk, Montparnasse here tells me you got yourself a lump and a bind. How did you manage that?"  
  
She blinked. "Hawk?"  
  
The old man raised an eyebrow. "Montparnasse, how big was that lump?"  
  
"Not so large. It should have been a mere nothing for someone like our Hawk," replied the younger man's voice from the darkness. Unless she was deceived, Cosette thought that she heard a touch of admiration in his statement.  
  
Without warning, a boy's head appeared at the sewer grate. "Move on, move on! Th' cops're comin'!"  
  
These words caused a huge ruckus in the sewer. A hand grabbed Cosette's wrist and began to drag her further into the blackness of the sewer. She managed to follow her new captor, stumbling and then being dragged until she could get herself on her feet again. Their footsteps made dull splashing noises. Cosette tried not to think why.  
  
She could not see a thing, but apparently her companion could. They raced down endless dank passages, turning every few minutes in another direction, until Cosette could finally make out a tiny speck of light in the distance.  
  
The light grew and grew until it could be recognized as a sewer grate. The other person's face was finally illuminated. It was Montparnasse.  
  
He shoved her hastily out the grate and began to follow. Cosette was soaking wet with who-knew-what, and the rags she wore barely kept her warm in the chilly afternoon breeze.  
  
She collapsed onto the street.  
  
Someone grabbed her from behind, forcing her arms behind her back and pulling her to her feet. Cosette looked up and saw that Montparnasse was also struggling with an inspector. Something cold, round, and metallic was pressed into her neck.  
  
"Well, well, well, Montparnasse and the Hawk. What a find, what a find," came a voice from behind Cosette. "The old fellow would have been proud, had he not-"  
  
The cold voice broke off for a moment, then resumed.  
  
"He, of all people – the very model of an inspector. Then comes that revolution, and something must have snapped in him. I suppose we'll never know what."  
  
The policeman holding Montparnasse's arms took one hand away from his captive to remove the hat from his head. This was a mistake, for Montparnasse began struggling again. He nearly broke free, but the man dropped his hat, pulled a pistol from somewhere inside his greatcoat, and pressed it against Montparnasse's neck. The young man was forced into a position exactly like the one Cosette was in. It was then that the Baroness Pontmercy realized what was happening.  
  
Cosette's captor removed the weapon from her neck and began to fasten manacles about her wrists. The other policeman did the same to Montparnasse.  
  
The prisoners were dragged around the corner and then shoved roughly into a fiacre. One of the policemen told the driver to take the two to a police station as quickly as possible.  
  
Inside the cab, Montparnasse had moved much closer to Cosette than she thought was necessary. There was plenty of room on his other side. Cosette desperately wished he would scoot back over. After all, she was a married woman.  
  
"It will be alright, you know," Montparnasse said comfortingly. "They have yet to invent a jail that can keep out gang in."  
  
And Cosette wondered if she had died and missed out on heaven. 


	4. The Plot Progresses

A/N- Yup, I added quite a bit that wasn't there before... thus the term "added," insinuating that... well... that it wasn't there before. So yeah.  
  
Elyse3- "*hits Montparnasse with a stick* Back off!" That was hilarious! Yay! My spell check says 'bourgeois.'  
  
La Pamplemousse- Thankee! I feel highly complimented.  
  
Disclaimer- I don't own Montparnasse, the rest of the Patron-Minette, Cosette, or Marius. Or Valjean. Or Fantine. And Kip Driver was an awesome Montparnasse in the show I saw the other day. The blocking in the robbery at Rue Plumet scene made the whole Parnasse/Ponine thing rather obvious. /And/ he looked exactly the way I'd pictured Parnasse... from what I could see from the balcony.  
  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
  
Bobette began to look about the rooms. They seemed to be too neat to actually be lived in. She wandered down the stairs and found a letter tossed onto the table in the entrance hall. She picked it up greedily and began to read, hoping for some sort of insight into this rich life.  
  
/\/\/\  
  
The barred door slammed shut in Cosette's face. Montparnasse put a hand on her shoulder. "The Patron-Minette will have us out before dawn, Hawk," he whispered. "Don't get too settled."  
  
He motioned toward the bench that ran along the back wall of the cell. "Sit?"  
  
Cosette did. "Listen, monsieur, I am not... Hawk. My name is-"  
  
"Hush kid, I know."  
  
"You do?"  
  
Montparnasse sat next to her on the bench. "That lump had you good, right?"  
  
Cosette inched away. "Sorry?"  
  
"You got a headache, right?"  
  
"Of course! I am sitting, soaking wet in a freezing jail where everyone thinks that I am a robber. Wouldn't you have a headache, too?"  
  
"No, ma chère," Montparnasse put a comforting arm around her shoulders. Cosette was not comforted. "The headache comes from the lump on your head. You should be fine after a while... but then my old mother – she got it in the head with a nightstick. Woman was out cold for about an hour, and she woke up thinking she was someone else. I don't think she ever got over it. Don't know really, haven't seen her since I was a kid. Thought she was the queen, my mum did." Montparnasse laughed.  
  
Cosette realized that he would never believe her. As far as he was concerned, she was the Hawk.  
  
/\/\/\  
  
Bobette was awed. This was a letter from the man who had raised Cosette. He was not really her father, but an escaped convict. Their mother, Fantine, had been a whore, and the convict believed that he was going to die when he wrote the letter. Cosette's easy life was not what it seemed to be.  
  
Bobette ran to the street corner where she had shoved Cosette, but her sister was not there. The rope Bobette had used to bind her was lying in the mud.  
  
/\/\/\  
  
A shout awoke Cosette, and she found (to her horror) that she had fallen asleep with her head on Montparnasse's shoulder. She stood up quickly as she heard someone unlocking the cell. Montparnasse also stood, saying, "That'll be our people."  
  
And sure enough, the person who opened the door was the little boy who had warned them of the police. He triumphantly announced, "I got th' cops, I did. Th' one was standin' there 'nd I knocked 'im, I did. I knocked 'im cold 'n 'e won' be up for a bit."  
  
Montparnasse patted the boy on the head and smiled. "You've done good, boy. Gavroche would have been proud. Now take us to the rest."  
  
"Did I tell you 'ow I met 'im, Parnasse? Me and me brother, we was out in th' street lost, see, 'nd 'e came up 'n-"  
  
"Yes, you told us all. Quick, take us to the gang before the cop wakes up!" Montparnasse interrupted.  
  
The boy dashed out, and Montparnasse grabbed Cosette's hand and pulled her after him.  
  
/\/\/\  
  
Bobette picked up the rope. She could tell that a sharp knife had sliced it. Something red caught her eye, and Bobette saw a rose trampled in the mud near the road. It all clicked into place.  
  
Parnasse, the pretty-boy type who was occasionally known to hold a rose as he prowled through the streets, must have seen Bobette's look-alike in Bobette's clothes and naturally assumed it was Bobette. He had probably sliced the ropes with his ever-present lethally sharp knife and taken Cosette to the sewers.  
  
Bobette set off at a run.  
  
/\/\/\  
  
The three arrived at an old building. Something about it seemed vaguely familiar to Cosette, as if she had been here in a dream. Cosette was so cold... so tired. She coughed and collapsed in the middle of the street.  
  
Montparnasse lifted her in his arms, and she immediately regretted that she had not remained on her feet. "I can stand," she whispered, and he put her back down, almost reluctantly.  
  
The bearded old man from the sewers pushed open the door, grabbed Montparnasse's sleeve, and pulled him inside. Cosette coughed, using all of her strength to concentrate on remaining standing.  
  
"I lived here a long time ago," the old man said quietly, "but the cops got after me. I figured since the cop who got me here killed himself nobody else would expect me to come back to the same place."  
  
And suddenly Cosette remembered.  
  
She and her papa had come here to see about a sick family. There had been two daughters, a mother, and a father, whom Cosette now recognized as the old man who stood before her. One of the daughters had had a wounded hand and the mother had been seriously ill. Her papa had given them his overcoat and clothing and had returned later to give them money.  
  
And Cosette remembered even more.  
  
When she was a child, she had stayed in this house with her papa for a short time.  
  
And then they had moved to the convent.  
  
But before that, she had not lived with her papa. She had stayed in a tavern with a baby boy, two little girls, a woman, and a man. They had mistreated and beaten her.  
  
The same man was standing here in the doorway, offering her his arm.  
  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
  
Uh-oh! Cosette suddenly learns to think! What will she do with her newfound abilities? Will she run home? Will she take a leaf from the book of Elyse3 and hit Parnasse with a stick? Review or I shall never update again and leave everyone who hasn't read this before in a state of turmoil and confusion. 


	5. Montparnasse's Mistresses

A/N- Um. I don't feel like thinking of something witty to say. I'm too sleepy. I practiced the piano for an hour and a half... I have Federation next week... *drifts off to sleep*  
  
Elyse3- Ah! Random Stick of Doom I like! That's hiiiiiiiilarious.  
  
La Pamplemousse- Sure it is, Javert! Poor Ponine, though. She was born too late to interest Javert in the least.  
  
sweet775- This is a good thing? If not, hang in there. It gets better.  
  
Disclaimer- I only own Bobette. (Told you I was tired. My disclaimer's not even witty!)  
  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
  
Bobette was out of breath by the time she reached the sewer where the gang had last lived. She found a bit of fabric from her own dress, currently worn by Cosette, stuck in the broken lock. The sewer was empty.  
  
A had grabbed her shoulder. "What are you doing here, girl? You in with the robbers we pocketed here earlier, or- oh, pardon me, Baroness Pontmercy. I failed to recognize you. You are aware of the danger of this place, am I right?"  
  
Bobette whirled around and found herself face to face with a policeman. He smiled. "We arrested a whole gang of criminals here earlier. Two almost got away, but we caught them at a grate a few streets over. Then, this morning, they broke out of jail. We assumed, Madame, that they would be back."  
  
"W- what did they look like?"  
  
"Who?"  
  
"The two you caught later."  
  
"The two who almost got away?"  
  
Bobette nodded.  
  
"Let me see... a charming young man with a top hat and tails and... and a ragged young girl. Come to think of it, the girl looked... she looked quite a bit like yourself, Madame. Only not so attractive. I believe that their names were Montparnasse and Hawk."  
  
"Parnasse is with the Lark!" Bobette whispered.  
  
"Yes, Madame Pontmercy, the park is a much safer place to take a walk. I would escort you, but I must guard the sewer here in case the criminals come back."  
  
Bobette rolled her eyes. "Oh, they'd really come back to a place they were just picked from," she muttered.  
  
The policeman did not hear. He bowed and Bobette, having done what she could, returned to the Pontmercy home.  
  
/\/\/\  
  
The old man cleared his throat. "Hawk, are you coming in or staying outside tonight?"  
  
Cosette blinked. "Well... I... uh... suppose I am coming in."  
  
She found it in herself to smile at the old man as he held the door for her. "Thank you... ah... Thénardier."  
  
The man smiled delightedly. "Oy, Montparnasse! Hawk's remembered my name!"  
  
"Excellent, wonderful," Montparnasse said as he came carefully back down the rotting stairs. "Where are the others?"  
  
"That boy's out getting them. They all got pocketed. We thought you two had made it. But... well, it doesn't matter anyhow. You're out, I'm out, and soon the rest will be out, and we'll all stay here."  
  
"Have... we... always lived together? The... um... robbers?" Cosette ventured.  
  
"Poor kid. No, no, wasn't so long ago I had the rest of my family with me and we lived under one roof – well, the rest of the gang lived off in the sewers or wherever. But we find it easier to be all in one place now."  
  
"What happened to your family?" Cosette asked, thinking of the baby boy from the tavern in Montfermeil. He was the only Thénardier who hadn't ever been rude to her.  
  
"Well, my wife died in prison. Then my older daughter, Eponine, got herself killed over that neighbor boy of ours in the revolution. Come to think of it, the revolution took the boy Gavroche, too. Well, he never lived with us anyway. I had two other sons, but I've no notion as to what became of them. We rented them to some wench who got herself thrown in jail," Thénardier explained.  
  
"Old man! The boy who warned us of the police was one of yours!" exclaimed Montparnasse.  
  
"Yeah, well, a fat lot of good he did us."  
  
"He got us all out!"  
  
"Yeah, sure. But he wouldn't have to get us out if we hadn't gotten in in the first place."  
  
Cosette watched this in horrified fascination. If she and Marius ever had children, she couldn't imagine just turning them out into the streets. And even worse, not recognizing one of them when he saved your life! It was almost too much.  
  
Then, something Thénardier had said triggered her attention. Eponine had died for a neighbor boy in the revolution? Marius had been in the revolution! If Eponine had loved one of Marius's friends and died for him on the barricade, wouldn't Marius have met the girl?  
  
"What neighbor boy do you mean?"  
  
"Oh, that no-good lawyer... the girl was head over heels for him."  
  
Cosette did not find this very helpful, for many of Marius's friends had been lawyers. In fact, Marius himself had been a lawyer.  
  
"Do you remember his name?" Cosette pried.  
  
"What was it? He paid our rent once. Oh... oh, that's it! Monsieur Marius!"  
  
Cosette barely concealed a gasp. Marius had never mentioned any girl saving his life!  
  
"Yeah," Thénardier continued, "but he was after the Lark the whole time. I even heard tell Eponine found out where the Lark lived just to make him happy."  
  
"Oh! The same house we tried to rob that night! You remember, Eponine said it was a biscuit, but we came anyway. She wouldn't let us in! Guarding him, I suppose. I knew we couldn't trust her!" Montparnasse said suddenly.  
  
Thénardier snorted. "No, boy, you sure as the devil didn't trust Eponine. Not with anything!" He sounded sarcastic.  
  
Montparnasse looked indignant. "Well, I didn't have anybody else at the time."  
  
"Yeah, that girl said she loved you. You heard her. And what did you say?" Thénardier demanded.  
  
Montparnasse looked at the floor and said something they couldn't hear.  
  
"Sorry? What did you say to my girl when she called you her love?"  
  
"I said... I said 'Watch out, my knife is open. Don't cut yourself.'"  
  
"And then...?"  
  
"That's all I said."  
  
"No, boy," Thénardier argued. "You said, 'I was ready to give the girl a clout.' You said you'd kill her!" The old man did not seem to find this at all upsetting. He was apparently just poking fun.  
  
Montparnasse had been trying to tell Thénardier something with his eyes, but it wasn't quite working. The young man would give Thénardier a desperate stare, then look pointedly at Cosette, and then try it again.  
  
"Awfully true to your mistresses, aren't you, boy?" Thénardier continued.  
  
Montparnasse finally gave up. "Just the ones with your blood in 'em, old man."  
  
Cosette noticed he was looking at her out of the corner of his eye. She ignored this entire conversation. "The house where... the Lark lived... was it in the Rue Plumet?"  
  
"Yeah... yeah, it was. How'd you know, Hawk?"  
  
Cosette stifled another cough and frowned. So far she understood that the Thénardiers had raised her and mistreated her while indulging little Eponine. Then Jean Valjean had taken her to Paris. The Thénardier family also moved to Paris. In fact, they lived next door to Marius Pontmercy, Cosette's future husband. Eponine Thénardier was in love with Marius who was in love with Cosette, the same little girl they had abused several years earlier. Eponine had showed Marius how to find Cosette, then stopped her father's gang from murdering them. Finally, their daughter had died for Marius. Then Marius and Cosette were wed. Now, Cosette had somehow ended up with Thénardier's gang, and they believed that she was one of them. Her head spun.  
  
The door to the old tenement opened and more men hurried in. They were the kind of people one would not want to meet while alone and unarmed. And behind them was the little girl who had had the injured hand when Cosette and her papa had visited the Thénardier family in this very building so long ago.  
  
"Hawk! Wonderful to see you! Word is you got hit upside the head and lost a tad up here," the girl grinned.  
  
"I know you, don't I? You're his girl," Cosette mused, pointing to Thénardier.  
  
"Yeah, that's me. Azelma, remember?"  
  
Ohhh, Cosette remembered. Azelma, Eponine's sister. Wondering vaguely if Azelma had loved Marius too, Cosette nodded.  
  
"Wonderful!" Montparnasse cried, putting a hand on her shoulder.  
  
And Cosette thought of the awful burn that her papa had had after he returned from the trip to help the Thénardier family.  
  
She thought of Montparnasse threatening to kill his lover if she got them sent to jail.  
  
These people were not only robbers, but murderers, too.  
  
Cosette repressed the urge to shake Montparnasse's unwelcome hand from her shoulder.  
  
Her mind went over brutal scenarios.  
  
Cosette shivered, and it wasn't because of the cold. 


	6. Concluding

A/N- Hiyee! Life is good on my side of the road. Et vous? Um... something... I'm updating! Yay! God bless the snow.  
  
tattered sparrow- Yayee! J'aime Parnasse aussi. He's hotness.  
  
Elyse3- Heee's baaaaaaaaaack! In a minute.  
  
La Pamplemousse- Ain't it the truth, though? Everyone loves writing about Eponine and the barricade boys, and Cosette gets rather overlooked.  
  
Disclaimer- None of these characters I own. Except Bobette, but you've heard that, yesh?  
  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
  
Bobette sat wearily at the ornate table. Marius had stopped pounding on the door long ago, and she vaguely wondered if he was still alive.  
  
Well, he couldn't have starved, for the cellar was full of potatoes. He couldn't have suffocated, for the door was full of cracks.  
  
She had to regain contact with the rest of the gang somehow, but she had only these expensive clothes. The Patron-Minette would rob her before they listened to her, and even so Bobette did not know where to find them. Someone had obviously tipped off the police about their hangout, so it was probable that they would not show their faces outside for days.  
  
Bobette was ready to bang her head against the table, and to top it all off Marius had started his attack on the door again.  
  
Bobette glumly wondered if she would ever see the rest of the gang again. She thought of Claquesous, the mysterious ventriloquist the police had believed dead since the June revolution; Gueulemer, six feet tall with muscles of steel, terrifying to see but rather nice... to her anyway; Babet, small and thin but ready to do the gang's bidding; and Thénardier, the frail old man who had somehow become leader of the entire gang.  
  
But mostly Bobette thought of Montparnasse, the handsome young man who had been known to have women swoon over him. Someone had once said that 'Parnasse had had a romance even with Thénardier's daughter Eponine. It was a joke among the robbers how the girl had been in love with her neighbor, Marius.  
  
Marius?  
  
Bobette suddenly realized that she had not checked everywhere.  
  
/\/\/\  
  
Cosette coughed again, fervently wishing for her own home or at least a coat.  
  
A massive amount of robbers and murderers had crowded into the dilapidated old house, among them the girl Azelma and two boys, apparently her brothers. A hush filled the whole place and the darkness was eerie.  
  
Night had fallen, but Thénardier would not allow anyone to light a candle for fear of being seen from the outside.  
  
Cosette coughed again. She felt as if her chest were on fire.  
  
Someone (assumedly Montparnasse) was standing behind her with his arm around her waist. Someone else's elbow was jabbing into her stomach. It was much too cramped for everyone to stay in this room, but again Thénardier had strictly prohibited anyone to leave the ground floor. The house was old, and he was afraid of the noise that stepping through a rotten board would make. She coughed painfully.  
  
Sweaty bodies were pressed against Cosette from every side, and the stench was unbearable. She hoped for a miracle.  
  
At that moment there was a strange cry from the street. It sounded similar to a birdcall, but just different enough that a human must have made it.  
  
Those with room to maneuver turned around sharply as if to verify that Cosette had not made the sound. The arm around her waist was suddenly gone, and the baroness could hear someone hiss "It's the Hawk!"  
  
/\/\/\  
  
Bobette and Marius raced down the street. Darkness was falling. "You'll have to tell me where it was!" Bobette shouted over her shoulder.  
  
Marius pointed down an alley. "This is a short cut!"  
  
"Excellent! We should have Cosette out in no time!" Bobette called back. "And away from 'Parnasse," she added in a whisper.  
  
Bobette had said to herself, 'If I was Thénardier and someone had tipped off the police, where would I go?'  
  
She had lived with gang long enough to be able to think like any of them, which came in handy in situations such as these.  
  
Knowing Thénardier, he would most likely go from the sewers to a place he had stayed before, for he was much smarter than this, which the police knew. Because the police knew that he was too clever to revisit his former home, that was exactly what the old hand intended to do.  
  
The only place Bobette knew of in Paris where Thénardier had stayed before was number 50-52, the Gorbeau Tenement.  
  
And coincidence of all coincidences, his neighbor in number 50-52 had been the same man Bobette had just locked in the cellar – the baron Marius Pontmercy.  
  
/\/\/\  
  
Everyone turned to stare at Cosette.  
  
She coughed.  
  
"How can you be in here and out there?" someone asked.  
  
Cosette sniffed. "Well, I told you that I am not the Hawk. I tried, anyway. My name is Baroness Cosette Fauchelevant Pontmercy. I believe, Monsieur Thénardier, that this name should be familiar. Or perhaps you know me as the Lark."  
  
The whole group stared, dumbfounded.  
  
/\/\/\  
  
Bobette and Marius reached the old house and, much to Marius's surprise, Bobette began to make a shrieking noise like that of a bird.  
  
Someone inside the building coughed.  
  
They heard a few vague whispers and the same person coughing miserably.  
  
Finally, the door edged open.  
  
/\/\/\  
  
Thénardier pushed open the door and stepped out.  
  
The majority of the bandits, seeing an opportunity for fresh air, poured out into the streets after him.  
  
Cosette found herself alone in the room with Azelma and the two boys.  
  
She let out another racking cough.  
  
Azelma winced.  
  
/\/\/\  
  
A young man rushed toward Bobette from the crowd. "Hawk? Is that frilly baroness really out Hawk?"  
  
Bobette threw herself into the man's arms. "Parnasse!" she cried ecstatically.  
  
He raised an eyebrow. "So, how did you manage to switch places with the Lark?"  
  
"I'll explain later. It's so wonderful to see you again!"  
  
Marius frowned. He had immediately recognized the crowd of people as those who had attacked Monsieur Fauchelevant next door next door to his old apartment at this Gorbeau House. The street was full of burly men speaking the language of the underworld.  
  
He saw Cosette nowhere.  
  
Thénardier separated himself from the crowd. "Well, Monsieur Marius."  
  
Marius flinched. No one had called him that since Eponine, the Thenariders' unfortunate daughter, had died at his feet.  
  
"I assume, monsieur," Thénardier continued, "that you wish to see the Lark."  
  
"That would be lovely. Yes," Marius replied warily.  
  
/\/\/\  
  
Cosette coughed again.  
  
From the streets she could hear the bandits speaking their vile language and, mixed in with that hubbub, two voices speaking plain French.  
  
Cosette suddenly heard Thénardier conversing near the door. She could only catch snatches of what he was saying, for a roar filled her ears.  
  
"I assume – wish to – the Lark."  
  
Another voice had responded, but Cosette coughed loudly and heard none of it.  
  
Thénardier's bent silhouette appeared in the doorway. "Hey Lark, there's a Monsieur Marius here to see you. What should I tell him?"  
  
Cosette fainted.  
  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
  
Yes, I oh-so-love ending chappies with the fainting of Cosette. Review mes chers amis! (Was that bad grammar?) 


	7. Two Straight Paths

A/N- OHHH NOOOOO! My ficcy dear is almost over with. I give it one more chapter after this, and then maybe my original plot. *sniffles*  
  
Elyse3- Here's a little Cosette/Marius. Doesn't last too long, though.  
  
La Pamplemousse- I had nothing better to do, thus the sudden burst of updatingness.  
  
tattered sparrow- Glad to hear it. I know that feeling...  
  
Disclaimer- Do you honestly think I could possibly be Hugo? Didn't think so. I've tried to be, however, by inventing Bobette. I even stole a few lines from him (Hugo) in this chappie.  
  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
  
Cosette awoke in her own room. Marius was seated at her bedside, asleep in his chair. She coughed and he opened his eyes. "Cosette," he whispered taking her icy hand in his warm one, "the doctor has been here. He says he thinks that you have pneumonia, but he doesn't know for sure. He'll be back in a little while."  
  
Cosette, thrilled to be home again, heard him as though from a distance. The whole thing must have been an awful dream. She coughed again, painfully. Now, if she could just get Marius to allow her papa to visit again everything would be alright.  
  
There was a knock at the door. "We wish to pay out apologies to the Baroness Pontmercy," announced a voice from the hallway.  
  
"Come in," Marius answered.  
  
The door opened to reveal Bobette, Montparnasse, Azelma, the two boys, and few other bandits. Montparnasse sighed. "Hawk told us about your loss, and, although none of us wanted to-"  
  
Bobette elbowed him in the stomach.  
  
"Mph! I mean, so we came to apologize for what we put the Lark through immediately after her foster father's de- Mph! We came to apologize." He turned to Bobette. "Happy?"  
  
Bobette shook her head and stepped forward, into the room. "Cosette, I'm so sorry! I thought you had the perfect life and I just wanted to see what it was like for a while. I didn't think you'd end up with the Patron- Minette or I wouldn't have done it in the first place. And I'm really sorry about you getting sick and I'm sorry about Monsieur Valjean and our mother and- oh, everything!"  
  
Cosette sat up a little straighter. "/Our/ mother?"  
  
"Yes, our mother. Fantine la Blonde, you remember? She was a friend of Monsieur Valjean's."  
  
"We- we had the same mother?"  
  
"Of course! I'm your sister, remember me? Fantine left us both at the Thénardier tavern and they got sick of us and kicked me out!"  
  
Cosette suddenly remembered the horrible red-haired woman holding the tavern door tightly closed against the pitiful wails of a child freezing, barefoot in the snow. "Bobette? You're Bobette?"  
  
"Yes! But they've taken to calling me the Hawk because Thénardier called you the Lark."  
  
"I thought... I thought she killed you!"  
  
"Who? The Thénardiess? No, I was raised by gypsies until the gang found me," Bobette explained.  
  
Someone in the back of the crowd of murderers cleared his throat. "May I... ah... see the patient?"  
  
The crowd parted and a pale doctor made his way into the room. He began his examination of Cosette and the robbers began to thin out as they left one by one. Bobette and Montparnasse were last, walking out slowly, hand in hand.  
  
By the time the entire Patron-Minette had cleared out of the hallway the doctor was finished. He took Marius into the hall and closed the door.  
  
When the baron returned he was blinking back tears.  
  
"Marius, what's wrong?"  
  
"It's... ah... nothing, really."  
  
Marius was a terrible liar.  
  
Cosette grabbed his hand. "What's the matter? Tell me!"  
  
Marius put his other hand over Cosette's and held it tightly. "The doctor... your pneumonia..."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"He says it's incurable," Marius finally whispered.  
  
/\/\/\  
  
The wind rustled Marius's hair. He leaned against the tombstone, wondering what he could have possibly done to deserve this. Ever since the day that doctor had diagnosed Cosette's pneumonia as incurable Marius had prayed for a miracle.  
  
He had wanted to be angry with the robbers, but they, obviously prompted by Cosette's sister, had been extremely apologetic and kind. He found that he could not blame them.  
  
And after the Patron-Minette there was no one to blame.  
  
Marius had stopped seeing other people. He was afraid to make friends – it seemed that whenever he got close to someone they just... died. Again he prayed for a miracle.  
  
He walked down by the river Seine to Pont-Neuf and leaned with his elbows on the parapet, his chin resting on his hands. What did he have to live for? Marius had no friends... no family... nothing. In the end it came to nothing. Marius Pontmercy had nothing to live for.  
  
Marius slowly climbed onto the railing of the bridge. Before him he saw two straight paths – to go back into the world, make new friends and perhaps watch them die; or to remain closed up in his house until old age bring him to Cosette.  
  
He watched the water swirling beneath him. But why wait for old age to see Cosette again? Why not just-  
  
Marius threw himself into the river Seine.  
  
/\/\/\  
  
Cosette stood before him. "Marius, that was awful of you! You had a purpose in life too. You didn't give yourself long enough to live out your life!"  
  
Behind her Marius could make out another form – an old man with a saber cut across his face. "Son," said the man, "you have been given two choices. You can go back to the Paris you just left as a ghost, or you may be sent somewhere else in a different time. When you have fulfilled your purpose in life you may join us."  
  
As he said "us" Marius saw behind him the forms of many others. A thin woman with long golden curls leaned on the shoulder of an elderly man with white hair. A fair young man stood tall and proud, and behind him stood another man, watching the first with reverence. A sprightly little boy sat on the ground next to a dark-eyed girl who gazed mournfully at Marius... He could see many other figures behind his father and his wife.  
  
Marius thought of the choice that he had to make and came upon his decision almost immediately. 


	8. A Purpose Fulfilled

A/N- Whoop! This is the best part! I'm so excited I'm going to skip a long drawn-out author's note AND the disclaimer! I'll put the other stuff at the end. /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
  
Marius found himself in the middle of a busy sidewalk. The people rushing by him gaped. He understood why when he realized that he was wearing his normal black suit and gray vest. Everyone else – even the women – was wearing what seemed to be blue pants and undershirts. Wherever Marius was, he felt very out of place.  
  
Something blue, white, and red caught Marius's eye. Across the street was a huge sign bearing a depressed child and the French flag. A large sign underneath said "Tryouts Today!" in enormous red letters.  
  
Thinking that he had found an embassy, Marius went in.  
  
The room was full of other people. Two men sat behind a large table writing something on a clipboard. Upon seeing Marius one called, "Your name?"  
  
Marius was startled. "Um... Marius Pontmercy."  
  
The man began to scribble something with the pen. "Trying... out... for... Marius. Now, what's your name?"  
  
The other man said, with a heavy accent, "'E must want zis role very badly. See, 'e is in costume joost like ze one Andreane made."  
  
Marius stared.  
  
"You are here for tryouts, right?" the first man asked.  
  
"I suppose..."  
  
"What is your name?"  
  
"I'm sorry, who are you fellows?"  
  
"I'm Alain and he's Claude-Michel. Now, tell us /your/ name."  
  
"Um... Michel," Marius answered quietly.  
  
"Michael what?"  
  
Marius frowned at the pen in Alain's hand. "Can I see that?"  
  
Alain and Claude-Michel exchanged a significant look before Alain handed Marius the pen.  
  
It was gray plastic, but what had caught Marius's eye was that it had green ink. The word "UniBall" was written in white on the side of the pen.  
  
The first man took the pen back and said slowly, "Your first name is Michael. What is your last name?"  
  
Marius thought of the pen. "Um... Ball."  
  
Alain smiled. "Michael Ball, trying out for Marius. Take a seat over there, please."  
  
Marius nodded and sat down, wondering what the purpose of his life could be.  
  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\  
  
C'est finit, my story's done! So, what did you think of that?  
  
eponine-meliara – Nope. 'Tis up to me to decide, obviously. Hope that was as good as what you would have thought of.  
  
Altenq- Wow! You get a cyber-UniBall-with-green-ink for most reviews in a row! I quite like your PotC bit (as much as I've read). Pintel and Ragetti need more fics just for them! Thanks for reviewing after every chapter! Glad you liked it.  
  
tattered sparrow- You thought /that/ was interesting, wait till I randomly decide to put up my original plot line? It's rather insane, but that's what happens when you try to put a fanatic Mizzie in a Spanish class.  
  
Sweet775- Ah, yes. Mizcago is fun... I think Cosette needs to get out more. But yeah, most of my fics are centered on Cosette... okay, two of them are. AND I'M DONE WITH BOTH!  
  
Elyse3- Yup... I'm good at leaving you confused. I hope that cleared it up. Basically, he had to fulfill his purpose in life and committing suicide happened before he'd done... whatever. I had about two paragraphs of Marius/Cosette. I have a mushy fic I plan to put up...someday.  
  
Disclaimer- I do not own Michael Ball, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Andreane Neofitou, or Marius. They all own themselves except for Marius, who belongs to Hugo. It would be sad not to own yourself, wouldn't it?  
  
Oh, and I don't know whether Boublil and Schönberg really held tryouts for the original cast of LM, but they do now. DEAL WITH IT.  
  
NOW GO READ LEGEO & GIMLIET BY MOI! 


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